Time has stopped: let's spend a few time together…

How to drive “happy innovation” as a core concept?

Driving the change with happiness produces better results in the long term for brands: products, service level, employees involvement and motivation, learning scale, knowhow footprint. Some could say theres’s some “disturbing tricks”, considered sometimes too framed, complicated, as “sect” behaviors. But none. In the spirit of “meaning” and quest for everybody to a “sense of life“, allowing for the luckiest, a perfect stability between career, family, entertainment and in heritage, there’s not only “chance”. If we look at poursuit of happiness, as a never ending story to keep motivation, willingness to learn and share and a desire for improvement, we can perfectly get the essence of this weird process:

things become boring as we reach them ; just like collectors who keep fever until they get the last piece of their collection…and depress then after

the emotion is intense while the action is, but step down just after the success. It’s really strange, but it is. Ask for champions who won, and then…kind of baby blues, in someway?

to keep the sheer energy, innovation with happiness must be considered as a never ending process, always searching for new tracks for improvement, challenging the service level and beat our own results. An impossible quest? Not sure, because passion is an awesome fuel for everyone…

In a special bigup for this delicious tale and stories inside “Happier”, from Tal Ben-Shahar, the first impressions were that the race for happiness in itself, doesn’t mean anything if we see it as a collection, without a framed life. Drawed like a coherent way to discover each day, new experiences, surprises with rituals maybe, we have to be convinced by the special force of “sense”. If we try to compare happiness in relative ways with others, we lose our mind with bad thoughts about jalousy, greed and deny. That’s not a positive attitude which don’t enable opening stories with others. He meant and gave perspective to happiness (and quest for) in underlining the “way”, the “process”, as a source of happiness itself. In other words, “don’t focus only on the result, but feel and appreciate the way to go there”. A perfect and slow ongoing way to learn and give a chance to any milestone, any few snap thing that “makes” the way.

And I found a reason to link this particular and hectic approach, to innovation, like a process.

I tried here to compare the acquisition and race for happiness, with models and behaviors confronted with choices of innovation, with two axes: return/pleasure on short term and pleasure/return on long term.

First Quadrant : “Rat Race”…

…means focus on long term pleasure, never considering the way/process as interesting in getting/giving pleasure, as an ongoing flowing action. It supposes cash, strong settlements and long R&D windows of development, but rare entries on misc. activities in diversification. Devise could be “one day…maybe”, refusing elusive deals facing them prefering investing on framed, stronged and loud process. This could be pharmas’ models for example, confronted with security and sanity process, and the necessary R&D involvements. They like “hard innovation” but could refuse easy one…

Second: Slow Followers…

…will slow the flow, with a “no…no…” attitude, to secure cash and strategy. Focused on past success, they mean to wait the future window of opportunity…staring at competition, long after “crossing the chasm“. They often do one thing at-the-time, but stare at anything that moves, to create a perfect control tower, safe. They can draw lessons from the past, but are not really sure if chance, random or anything else that way, could be the exact final decisive point. They also make the mass-market coming and can lower the costs of delivering, by industrializing the mainstream approach. Not really sexy, but necessary. Me-too products for settled consumers, and old processing because “nothing worths it…”. Some behaviors bending on “too much realistic” and not enough disruptive mindset.

Third: Shooters…

…Everybody has ever known one in his own life: something/someonethat/who, can “woooot” you up, and make the spark in your eyes. A gun, a shooter, a big buzz. But once, only once. Focused on fashion, day-to-day, hedonism and sheer short-term gain. A star, who will never keep the distance. And that’s all the difference: big brands don’t make only big PR/buzz around products, services or deliverings. They stand and hold a position, for yesterday, now and tomorrow. Using your energy to bring news and buzz, will build a instant cash good deal, but doesn’t set you as a strong innovator. A lots of resources are managed and satisfied in the distance: customers, employees, machines, built-in processes…And as already described, running for an immediate goal, makes you in the blues and feel depressed, just after the victory. Like Champions…of one snap instant.

Last, but not least, of course, according to me, the most sustainable and sharable shape of innovation: I called “The HappInovators”,…

…as they make a perfect exercise between goals to achieve together, and ways to proceed. Exploring radical shifts yes, but keeping concentrate and realistic about the ability to make the change happen. the organization in small cells, with maximum collaborative spirit, turned into energy. The energy for being able to think “why do I do this (like I do it)?”, several times in an ongoing process until the why is irrelevant. But not before. The spirit of feeling, appreciate all the milestones leading to result, learning from them but having joy, tears, hurdles too to print the moment. Doing nothing for nothing, as each case and stone must be the opportunity to rule something for the future, allowing the company to rise faster tomorrow, and to innovate easily. Talent management has not to be hold anymore because the spirit of “doing things happen”, lead them to think out-of-the-box and boost themselves all the time. They are on scene at each moment and on the lights. Why consider some talents more than others as the whole part is a talents building site? And why should I consider driving innovation in happiness? Because customers could feel it in your service, deliverings and brand. Because all your talents will be really involved as never, almost spending much costs on motivation tools or controlling. Because disruption comes when you put all the environment ready to make it come. Because you won’t choose between “today” and “future” anymore, you’ll manage the perfect balance between both, allocating resources as well. Because you’ll go to work (or any step you can transpose this process), with smile on your face. And spreading it, will overcome your results and the buzz for your entity.

Plant seeds of happiness is more than plant: it gives you the better (pacific) weapon to compete much closer and quicker, with the participation of the whole company. Training sessions for employees to come will make a better place to work, live and deliver…Saw that famous case about Zappos‘ story? Just in case…